It's Official!

I think Dan's vision of Barnabas was what we saw in HODS.  I haven't seen HODS in some time, but if I recall correctly, that Barnabas was a much less sympathetic character than the version in the original series.

I wonder sometimes if Dan's "vision" of Barnabas might just have been, "Ooh look, a scary vampire!"   Am I going too far?

Oh, here we go, putting down Dan Curtis again.  If it wasn't for Dan Curtis, there would have been no Dark Shadows.

Oh, here we go, putting down Dan Curtis again.  If it wasn't for Dan Curtis, there would have been no Dark Shadows.

Talking about what DC did or didn't do isn't putting him down.  That is assigning who deserves credit for what.  If nothing else, that's basic fairness.   DC had the guts to do DS to begin with, there isn't any question about that.  But giving him credit for something he didn't do doesn't serve keeping historical facts accurate and it's not fair to deny other creative people their due.  

Nancy

I think the original film of "The Night Stalker" represents DC's original vision of how he would have liked the vampire on DS to have been.  Since that movie was a huge hit and may even have been nominated for an Emmy (I honestly can't recall), there's no disrespect in stating this.  The vampire on "Stalker" does seem a lot closer to the image conjured up by the material I have read over the years about how Dan wanted the vampire on DS to be.  The reason why he did not wind up having more personal input on the original realization of Barnabas is that he was in England for some months in the late Winter and Spring of 1967, so the writers, for once, were left to do their own thing.

Writing the above, I wonder whether the way Tom Jennings was portrayed in the 1968 storyline showed some of Dan's influence.  I don't know how closely he was keeping tabs on the show at that time.  The hairpin twists and turns of the storyline during that period, to me, has Dan's name written all over it.

G.

Gothick,

I loved The Nightstalker!

Nancy

Well, barely - only that DS: The Haunting of Collinwood DVD comes out September 15th.

What is DS: The Haunting of Collinwood DVD? I've never heard of this and can't find anything online about it

According to Amazon it is a compilation of episodes telling the story of Quentin and the werewolf. There is another DVD coming out the same day that is the story of Barnabas the vampire. Again, it is a compilation. Each DVD will have a new interview with the actor involved.

See:

New MPI DVD storyline complilations

it was daytime TV, that's the only thing I can come up with.

The more I think about this, the more I think you might be on to something. Something tells me that if anyone involved in the compiling of EW's 20GV list ever addresses why Barnabas isn't included, they might very easily say because they focused only on Primetime TV. It's a ridiculous separation, particularly in this day and age - but it is one that continues to be made. 

Barnabas finally gets a mention, in the follow-up on their vampire article, in this week's EW Feedback section:

Those are some pretty big 500-pound-gorilla, elephant-in-the-living-room sorts of omissions they have there....

Well, I still don't forgive EW.  That was one really blow-it-big-time thing.  Just who do they hire to do their research?  I'll maybe think of accepting their apology and admittance for screwing up if they completely redo the article and re-print it in the next issue.  Maybe then they'll learn a lesson.

Gerard

In what was either a huge coincidence or someone up there smiling down on me, I got a survey in the mail from Entertainment Weekly a week or so ago, along with 2 crisp $1 bills.  They wanted me to give feedback on their vampire issue.  I was one of the ones who let them have it    Glad to see they at least owned up to it!

Cathy

Thank you on behalf of us all.   Have you decided what to spend your $2 on yet?